Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-01-30
WOMEN AT MARKET.
WHERE FEMININE BUSINESS TACT Is BEST
SHOWN.
Shemss for 0utwiting The innocent and Long-Suf-
fsring Dsslsrs-Sham Samples and Petty Pill
fering-Ths Brighter Side.

where woman, business as well as lovely
woman, woman in the full pride OF her
strength a negotatOr and a diplomat, can
be seen to her best advantage, and that is
at a big city market. She may haggle u
little in a dry grrdt store over a piece Of
calico OF "A pair of socks. She may tell the
coal maj volubly of his soulless eXtOrtion,
or tie yeuder ofsuspiciOus shelliish screcch-
ingly of his grasping avarice. She may
drive close bargains with the scandinavian
person who mikes up her clothes with
those of the colored family two blocks
away, and give good sold advice to he hus-
band about the selection of his clothes and
the Investment of his sheEels at SheepShead
Bay and other popular places Of deposit.
She may manage her household with thrift
and her children's clothing with exemplary
economy.
Yet in nOne of these instances is she seen
Mt her best. 1t is when she meets IN con-
| flict dire the. hardened and worldly keeper
of the market stall, chilled by long con-
tact with a cold and grasping world, tried
by all the wiles of ayariCiOuS humanity,
skilled in deceit and stopped to his neck III
ruile-it is when she meets him and
wrests the financial victory from him that
abashed man must hide his diminished head.
1t would do Que of those gentlemen who
think that all the business ability of the
race is safely cOrralled into mall heads 4
world of good to watch u woman who
knows how tOpick up bargainsina market.
He'd be pretty apt to think before she got
through that if he knew as much about
buying stocks or arguing law cases as she
does about her business he would be q
millionaire in two months.
A fat, Jolly little woman with q swing
ing gait that was almost atrOt, aud a black
basket half rs big as Il dry goods box, came
sailing into Washington market the other
morning, bright as a button, with both
eyes peeled so sharp for bargains that she
could see one through 4 twO-tOot wall, and
with determined enterprise written all over
her red round face. She was a typical
buyer. and II reporter followed her to see
lust how she would assault the callouSed
purveyOr in his den. A ~stenographic re-
port of her remarks would run like this:
NV! my! What's that! Halibut? My
| sakes alive, it doesn't smell very good,
does it? How much? What? Eight cents?
Good gracious, but that's an awful price
| for halibut when / can buy it any day Of
my pedler and rs good as ever growed in
the sea for six. Well, you incident tell
me, | guess | know good steak when | see
it, and look at the grain standing out on
that like clOtheslines on 4 back wall.
| Nine cents for round steak! and down nj
| the corner where | live it sells for seven
and eight; and better mate | never clappCd
ewes on since | was born! Come, now,
Mr.. Smike, there's Il darlint; you wouldn't
make Il poor mi come away down here
on Il day like this for a cent or two, and
she the mother of five children. Call it
seven cents, there's Il honey, and I'll take
it. And how is tripe this morning?
| What? No, indade, Mrs. Flanagan, that's
true fer yc; | hain't been buying tripe
every ChOoSday for thirteen years and not
to know what tripe's worth five cents and
what hain't. Right you are, indadc,
ma'am; it's shameful how they grind the
faces of the poor, .iist. And will We call it
four ccutS, Mr.. Smike, till take it off yer
hands to save We from the mate inspector?
Well, kapc it, thin, fer | know where !
kin get better than that fer three and a
half cintS."
Holy Saint Francis, do yer mOind that!
Foive cints for thin SaSSaGeS, Us I'm Il sin
| fcl woman, And here's Cannon and Me
Ouirk selling bctter'n that fer four. oh
NV, oh my, but it's truth it Is that the
poor haven't 4 ghost of Of a show with the
cruel stallkccpcrS always ut their Threats.
Four and a half; young man, look well ut
me: do | look lOikea miliynair or Il NaStOr?
Four cints; now yer Citing reasonable.
| Al ILL -, trnyr in a rotn nj nl1ta for tho
dog and a bit of salt pork for Willie,S
throat, that's got the whOOping cough?
And me an old customer, that's bought
mate here for fifteen years. Well, ye'd
better mOind yer tongue 0r I'll make yer
trow in a piece OF headcheese, too, ye trick
STEERS fer this morning, Mr.. Briggs
And 50 on, and so on, Il steady stream,
sans inteTmiSSiOn, for IN hour.
In the mean time she has picked up a
soup bone for Il nickel, the remnant OF Il
roast for half price, a handful OF carrots,
the tail end OF n job lot, for Il pitancc, and
a peek of potatoes that a desperate trades
man disposed OF for another nickel. All
told, she had bought meat and vegetables
enough to run her family half the week.
And she has paid in NJ. instance more than
half the price asked by the willy salesman.
If some unfortunate male had gone inthcrc
and bought those things i'll the open
market he weuld have paid three times as
much for them. And yet she had not
hectorcd, nor hagglcd, nor q~uibbled. She
had gone on in her determined way and
skiliully manmuvred until she got the
lowest price that a person could get, aud
she was satisfied.
And still they say that women have no
heads for business said II Stallkecper, rs
he leaned YEARLY against the wall when
the reporter told him his observations. Il
SEE that sort of thing all the time, year i'll
and year out, There are women who
haunt this ma. kct and know more about
the prices of different articles at the diff
frrent stalls than any operator in Wal
street knows about the price of stocks.
They can tell you in an instant, ont Of the
200 or 300 stalls here, at just which you
can get the best bargain in any article you
can name. 1t gets to he almost IL mania
with them. They nave got their wits so
~sharpeued by running up against the sharp
tradeSmen here that they can get the best
of a bargain almost before you know 1t.
That is all right, of course, because it's
fair play on both sides, and if woman can
talk me into 4 bargain, all right. But |
don't think it's quite right to ring in the
sample dodge quite as often as they have
of late"
what is the sample dodge" asked the
reporter.
"Oh, the sample dodge IS IN old and
mean trick by which some sharpers in a
small way beat the market man out of n
dinner now and then. II you stay here
long enough you'll see. one of them. l
usually get from two to dozen visits from
every day. Many of them are men, old
men usually, of respectable appearance,
though occasionally you find a well-dress-
ed woman in the business, and now and
then a child. 1t is worked like this. The
sample iiend comes up when you are not
busy, and tells you that he has not LAID in
his winter stock of vegetables yet. Then
/ he talks about different kinds of potatoes,